In the case of the alleged abduction and sexual assault of a Malayalam actor, police had released the photos of the prime accused Sunil Kumar earlier. There were also rumours that a prominent actor Dileep was involved in the case.
Meanwhile, another person named Riyas Khan who has a resemblance with Sunil Kumar aka Pulsar Suni and is also a leader of the actor’s fans association was troubled after his photographs started doing the rounds on social media claiming that he was the prime accused.
The photographs of Riyas were also used to claim that Dileep was behind the assault case.
In a Facebook post on Monday, he wrote:
A wicked face of online journalism. I am Riyas Khan, Dileep Fans State Chairman. A few days back, some Malayalam online portals published news claiming that Pulsar Suni aka Sunil Kumar participated in a meeting of Dileep Fans Association. They used my photograph with Dileep. Following that, many other Malayalam portals published it. Moreover, the editor of a prominent newspaper also shared the photo claiming I am Pulsar Suni.
He also claimed that people were giving such fake news to target Dileep, and that many in the media were trying to prove the actor’s complicity in the attack.
Alleging that there is a conspiracy against Dileep, he also shared the screenshots of his photographs being published by different online media.
“I will move legally against the media organisations that defamed me,” he wrote.
Earlier in the infamous Jisha rape and murder case, a similar incident had happened where Thaslik KY, a sales professional in Paravur, was targeted by social media for bearing similarity with the sketch of the suspect released by the police.
Later Thaslik also had to post on Facebook clarifying that he had no role in the case.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)